My brother-in-law got remarried last week to a truly sweet, wonderful woman and she'll be a real asset to my husband's side of our family. She and I bonded right away and I look forward to many more family get-togethers with her. But she's now providing us with a challenge we haven't previously dealt with; she has Celiac disease, which is essentially gluten intolerance. We've been really lucky that we have never had to worry about any food allergies or "intolerances" in the past, but now, going forward, we're going to have to be much more aware of what we cook and how it's prepared to make sure it's not contaminated with any wheat proteins.
So yesterday was their small family wedding reception and everyone was supposed to bring a dessert. I decided to make gluten-free brownies in her honor and to show that we are taking on the challenge. My cousin-in-law also decided to make something gluten-free, but I don't know that anyone else did - Yay for us!
I did my homework. I looked up what chocolate I could use and what double-checked every label of my ingredients to make sure it was okay - except one thing. I put my first batch together and sprayed a mini-muffin pan so that I could make brownie bites. Then I filled each cavity about 3/4 full and baked them. Then I thought, "hmm, I didn't look at that cooking spray" and, sure enough, the label says it may contain wheat traces. Damn! I dumped the whole batch into the garbage. And, to be honest, I didn't care too much for some of the flavoring I added so I made a second batter and changed up the recipe a little bit.
I was going to add butterscotch morsels but then I read the label and realized that the butterscotch contains barley malt. So I just added milk & semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter. (I used unsweetened Baker's chocolate for the batter - which is safe - but the Baker's bittersweet chocolate is made with alkali processing and that ISN'T safe). I owe a lot of my homework to Labelwatch.com, by the way. This time instead of using cooking spray I used mini-cupcake liners. I also decided to dust the brownies with powdered sugar and discovered that SOME powdered sugars can have added wheat-based fillers so it's important to check the label of the powdered sugar you are using.
I took the brownies to the party and my new sister-in-law tried them and LOVED them. She raved about them and made sure to give some to her mom who is also gluten intolerant. Yay!
I now have gluten-free flour in my pantry for future baking endeavors, but I'm sure it's going to be tough to always double-check what I can and can't use in my dishes to allow her to eat the food we provide. It's a good challenge though! So many people are gluten-intolerant now that it's something we all need to be aware of when we entertain.
UPDATE: my new sis-in-law is now asking me for the recipe. I call that a success!
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